Here's a thought: Ask a question or make a post that a reasonable person would say is relevant to this forum. When the idiots, assholes, and trolls who contribute less than nothing to the discussion appear, and they will, in a ration of at least 6:1, add them to your Ignore list. See two posts I made last night for prime examples. My Ignore list grew by four this morning.
Of course, pretty soon I'll only be posting back and forth with myself and TinMan..
Whoever made the post earlier in this thread about ECCIE dying or being dead was spot on. There's plenty of information to be shared out there, but who wants to share it in an environment where the signal-to-noise ratio approaches infinity and every response is "What a stupid question! STFU!"?
Trying to keep your own thread on track only serves to feed the trolls, who'll come back with more vituperation,ridicule, and irrelevance.
Interesting thread. As expected, several folks quickly illustrated the very points I was trying to make by attacking me personally. This is not just an issue for my threads. It happens on many, if not most threads, especially in Co-Ed. A little banter, a few jokes, no problem. We are here to have fun after all. Heck, I know many of my jokes or irreverent comments have pretty obscure links to the topics. Though I am pleasantly surprised sometimes at the number of folks who "get it".
The point is many threads quickly loose any value they may have had because people will use them for their own agenda. I don't mean one comment or a joke thrown in.. Its the endless back and forth fighting between a few members on so many threads. Or constant posting by a few people who wish to control the board for their own ends and try to squash threads and posters who don't meet their approval or goals.
The free flow of ideas and discussions is critical to the life of any board regardless of the overall content of the board.
When the idiots and assholes chase everyone else off, or at least into lurk mode, who's going to provide the reviews? Who's going to answer the ISOs, post alerts, share information?